Funayurei (Saga)

Funayurei ("boat ghost") is the entity of those who died at sea, appearing as a ship or figure on the water and calling out to passing boats "Lend me a ladle." If a sound ladle is handed over, the ghost pours water into the boat and sinks it; a bottomless ladle should be given instead. Cases are told widely along sea-difficult routes such as the Seto Inland Sea, the Genkai Sea, and the Ariake Sea, including Saga's Karatsu and Yobuko, the Hirado and Goto coasts of Nagasaki, and the Ariake Sea fishing villages. Around Obon the ghost is said to appear alongside the spirit boats. Toriyama Sekien's Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki (Anei 8, 1779) shows "Funayurei" with picture, and the Ehon Hyaku Monogatari (1841) also collects the figure. Yanagita Kunio and Sakurada Katsunori organized the nationwide distribution; the International Research Center for Japanese Studies Yokai Folklore Database and Murakami Kenji's Nihon Yokai Daijiten (Kadokawa, 2005) systematize the tradition.